Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has double-digit leads over either of Florida's favorite
sons, former Gov. Jeb Bush or U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, in an early look at the 2016 presidential
election, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

By a 91 - 8 percent margin, consistent with margins found in other states surveyed by the
independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University, Florida voters support universal
background checks for gun purchases. Voters in gun-owning households support universal
background checks 88 - 11 percent.

Mrs. Clinton, who shows the most strength of any potential 2016 aspirant in Quinnipiac
University's national polls, leads Jeb Bush 51 - 40 percent and bests Sen. Rubio 52 - 41 percent
in a poll of Sunshine State registered voters.

Clinton is viewed much more favorably than either man, 62 - 33 percent favorable for
Clinton, compared to 50 - 35 percent favorable for Bush and 41 - 34 percent for Rubio.

"We probably won't know for some time whether former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton runs for president in 2016, but if she decides to make the race, she begins with a sizable
lead in a state that Republicans cannot win the White House without," said Peter A. Brown,
assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Florida voters have a very
positive view of Mrs. Clinton and it's not just Democrats who feel that way."

Mrs. Clinton is viewed favorably by 26 percent of Republicans, not bad for a Democrat
who's had her share of battles with the GOP, and gets a 57 - 35 percent favorability among the
key voting group, independents. Not surprisingly, she gets 93 - 5 percent favorability among
Democrats. She has a 10-point gender gap: 66 percent of women and 56 percent of men view
her favorably.

In a head-to-head with Jeb Bush, Mrs. Clinton would get 10 percent of Republicans while
he would only get 4 percent of Democrats. Independent voters are divided 42 percent for
Clinton and 41 percent for Bush.

"Floridians' views on guns are pretty much in line with results seen in other states
surveyed by Quinnipiac University," Brown said. "Women are more likely to support restricting
guns than men; blacks more than whites and Democrats more than Republicans. The idea of
requiring background checks on those who want to buy guns has overwhelming support, 91 - 8
percent, in a country where getting a majority to agree on anything is often difficult."

From March 13 - 18, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,000 registered voters with a
margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points. Live interviewers call land lines and cell phones.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public
opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia
and the nation as a public service and for research.

For more information or RSS feed, visit http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling, or call
(203) 582-5201, or follow us on Twitter.

10. If the election for President were being held today, and the candidates were Hillary Clinton the Democrat and Jeb Bush the Republican, for whom would you vote?